Blog = Diary?

There is a wave of discontent amongst the HK Bloggers when a programme by Cable TV on "Blogs in Hong Kong" equates "blogs" with "personal diaries". Needless to say, such interpretation is seen as "too naive".

There are a lot of discussions at various blogs on this issue (see Sidekick for example) and I don't think I can add anything more to the debate. As I understand, some HK bloggers are planning to lodge formal protests to Cable TC as well. I have not watched the programme so I am not in the best position to comment on the issue. But in my mind, there is no doubt that Blog is not equivalent to personal diaries, it is a LOT more than that.

Dressed to Kill

It always feels special when you saw someone you know on TV or newspaper.

This afternoon I visited Give me Spirit Fingers Dammit to check out the latest round of fashion victims. Tadaaaa! Guess what I have found! A picture of my ex-colleague (Note: ex-colleague, not friends or anything) in that blog and to quote Spirit Fingers

"Women persist in showing as much white leg as possible"

Read the post and see the photo here. I nearly fell off my chair laughing and when I found my composure again, I immediately sent the link to my friends (Note: friends, also ex-colleagues).

Spirit Fingers, thank you very much! You made our day!

A Bit of Everything

Work is pretty busy - need to come in on Sat afternoon for a meeting and not having too much time updating this blog or reading other blogs.

Went to a housewarming party after meeting and ate a lot of salted chicken wings and chicken livers. They were great.

Went to church (yes) on Sunday morning then rushed back to meet relatives for lunch at Times Square. Then rushed to Diamond Hill to visit Children's home and drove to Tai Po for an educational outing. (YES!) Boating and baking were the orders of the outing, followed by a dinner there. Rushed back home to catch the 2nd half of Spurs v Villa at night.

Yesterday, went to the Peak for an hour walk but my thigh became sore after 30 minutes. Bumped into Gordan and Thomas (with their gfs). Ate a lot - Ox Tongue Fried Rice with Black Bean Sauce, Siu Mai and Curry fishballs as lunch, an Ice Cream sundae at McDonalds as tea and a heavy dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Wanchai with some other relatives of mine. Still felt hungry after I got home!

Spurs 5 Villa 1

I only returned home when the game was 35 minutes old, and Spurs were 3-0 up by then! I couldn't believe my eyes for a second. We conceded a penalty at the end of first half, making me wonder whether there would be a repeat of Spurs 3 City 4 game last season. It wasn't to be and we went on to finish the job impressively. Stephen Kelly was my MoM choice, but Simon Davies ran him close.

It is nice that Spurs are now sitting in the 7th place and the crunch game this weekend against Boro will decide who are going to Europe next season.

Come on you Spurs!

World's 50 Best Restaurants

The World's 50 Best Restaurants poll compiled by the Restaurant Magazine is out.

The annual list is based on the magazine's canvasing of more than 600 influential restaurateurs, critics, chefs, and industry experts. This year's consensus will have foodies everywhere heading to London, where over a quarter of the winners are located.

Further down the list you will find the sole representative from Hong Kong - Felix. Is it really that good?

See the poll results here.

Teen freed from rubbish bin

AN 18-year-old who got himself trapped head first in a rubbish bin in front of late night revellers in Melbourne has earned himself a new nickname - Oscar
the grouch.The hapless teen went rummaging in the bin early this morning when
one of his friends threw his mobile phone into it, then couldn't get out.

"He was trapped in the bin with his arm and head through the stainless steel
top of the bin, a bit like a lobster trap," said Peter Yeoman of the fire brigade's rescue squad, which was called to St Kilda to free the young man.

Police, an ambulance crew and local firefighters all added to the 3.40am
(AEST) spectacle for a large crowd, which soon built up on the busy bar strip of
Fitzroy Street.

Firefighters unscrewed the stainless steel lid from the body of the bin and then tried unsuccessfully to free the man by lubricating his head to slide him out.

"He was just wearing it like a big Elizabethan collar - like a dog would have when it got its stitches out," Mr Yeoman said. The jaws of life would not cut through the marine grade stainless steel, so firefighters had to use an air powered hacksaw to cut him free.

Mr Yeoman said the young man kept his sense of humour throughout his 45 minute ordeal, even as the crowd of onlookers grew. "He was in good spirits and he took it really well," he said. "But there were so many people around, all having a go at him of course, calling him 'Oscar the grouch'."

Mr Yeoman said it was a first for him. He had never rescued anyone from a bin before.

The young man, who comes from Drouin, was not seriously injured and walked away with a few bruises, scratches and, of course, dented pride.

I have watched video clippings of this news on Cable News. Hilarious stuff!

What's my Japanese name?

A silly test from Blogthings. Type in your English name and it will generate a Japanese name for you. This is mine:

Your Japanese Name Is...

Jiro Masachika

What's your Japanese Name?

Narrow defeat

0-1 to the Arse. Not a bad performance, but a lack of real quality. Carrick, Davis, Reid and Davies are not a marked improvement to Poyet, Sherwood, Leonhardsen and Korsten. At least the latter 4 can score goals.

It has been said but it is important that we should buy quality and not prospect to take the club forward. Atouba, Ziegler, Defendi, Reid, Dawsen, Huddlestone...etc may all well develop into useful squad members, but I can't see any of them progressing into a world beater. Please sign some big established names in the summer, or else we will find ourselves in similar position same time next season.

Arse v Spurs

Another derby at the closing stage of the season. Last season the Arsescum won the title at our place, and this time we are looking to end their title hunt at their place.


We have not lost to any top teams (Chelsea, Man U, Everton, Liverpool, Newcastle) away this season and if this trend continues tonight, the title will be Chelsea's. The best formation is Robinson, Kelly, King, Dawson, Edman, Reid, Davies, Davis, Brown, Defoe, Kanoute. I rate Brown over Carrick this season. Defoe scored a cracker against Arse at home and hopefully he will do so again tonite.

Talking about Carrick, he has the ability and physique to match Gerrard. But he lacks all the determination and drive to progress further. Of course he is still young and still not yet the finished article, but he must find another gear in the summer or else he will no more than a squad player rather than a midfield dynamo for us. Please try to score a goal too...

I will have Spurs (+1 handicap) and I am also tempted to put some $ on 1-1 or 2-2 draw.

COME ON YOU SPURS!

The Case

Quite pissed off this afternoon. The judgment of the Lands Tribunal case which I conducted a while ago has been handed down. We were only half successful - won part of our claim and lost the rest. Costs were awarded to our side.

Although costs go to the winning party, I still consider it a defeat. And I think the Member has erred (badly) in both his findings of fact and question of law. I am quite confident that an appeal will see us through, but client is not prepared to spend another several thousand dollars to pursue an appeal which will probably worth nothing at the end given the trivial amount she is claiming. What can I do when I cannot appeal against the decision when it is quite clearly wrong?

It is even worse that the client turned on me after hearing the judgment. Blaming me for the wrong findings by the "Member" when she gave vastly different stories to the tribunal (without my representation at the 1st hearing and with my representation at the adjourned hearing?). It was not long ago when she was so grateful to me for charging her a (very) nominal fee to handle the case which she has started poorly. Perhaps I shouldn't have tried so hard. Damn it. Back visualising your images poor soul!

A Prison Diary II by Jeffrey Archer

Just started reading a book by Jeffrey Archer recording his time in prison. I bought this book in Shanghai and without reading any reviews or knowing the author before buying this book, the RMB76 I spent on the book seems a well spent investment for me so far.

Did some research on Jeffrey Archer just now and he is definitely living a rollercoaster life. See his profile here.

With my past few years dedicated to football magazines, I am aiming to read more books in the future. Any recommendation for good books?

The Pope

So I was talking to Ellen on phone last night and she asked me who was elected the new Pope. I told her no one had been elected yet, and I was wrong. It turned out that the white smoke has billowed from the Sistine Chapel....but was it black smoke instead?

Then after 5 minutes, there was that guy coming out the balcony and delivered a speech in Latin (or Italian?) and I told Ellen that was the new Pope.

Wait a minute, no it wasn't. He was just announcing the New Pope has been elected who turned out to be Benedict XVI. The odds at Betfair just before the announcement for him was 1:4 (40 dollars profit for 10 dollars bet).

周杰倫‧七里香??? III

The lyrics of 七里香 unveilled! A must must watch!!! Click here or here to watch it. Remember to turn on your speaker volume!!!! (Click reload it you don't see a pop up media player)

Blogs or Ads?

Thanks to Just a Sidekick, these 3 "blogs" (or "Ads") may be of interests to you.

香港立法會議員單仲楷的Blog
謝連忠律師的一個香港律師的意見和偏見
Margaret Ng's blog (under construction)

Spurs - Edman's goal against Liverpool

Have anyone not seen it? Watch it here!

Probably the best Spurs goal I saw live. Yes, it was better than Gazza's freekick against Arse.

Sticker Map

An very interesting idea by Littleoslo putting together the stickers of HK and Taiwan.

希望透過地圖的形式將Blog的連結作一個視像化的分類。通過地圖的更新和擴展，成為一個有趣的活動。

I am honoured to be included in the sticker map and you can find my Glory Glory sticker on the map!

See the sticker map here!

Season Review - Winning Eleven

We had a good start to the season - sitting on top of the league after 3 games and were looking invincible. Then a slip in the mid-season pushed us down the table but we managed a draw against Euphoria in the last game to secure a much respectable place - 5th out of 12.

If we look at the league table, the problem with Winning Eleven was the inability to pick up any points against all the teams placed above us, despite playing well and leading against Freshers. Of course the other side of the coin saw us beat all the teams placed below us apart from Wu Dang and Euphoria.

The fitness of the team as a whole has not been good and we generally slowed down in the 2nd half and that was when we conceded probably 80% of the goals. It was particularly difficult if you have to chase a game when you concede an early goal. Only in the game against Fortune had seen us win a game after going a goal down.

One of the biggest improvements is the organisation of the team. From organising (thanks to Kenward and Raymond for sending the evites) and gathering (meeting 15 minutes before kickoff) to positioning (everyone knows their positions and adapts to the role) and playing (having some sort of tactics - the kickoff routine, the long throw in etc), the team has been playing much better than last season.

It would be a hard battle to keep up the standard next season and the imminent departure of our goalie means a capable replacement needs to be found.

On a personal front, I am finding it increasingly difficult to find the extra yard of pace. If you lose pace, it is very difficult to get away from the defenders. It looks like that I have to play like Teddy Sheringham (the extra yards are in his head). But I am happy with my goal return this season - 10 goals in 11 games. I am 1 goal short of winning the Golden Boot Award for the 2nd season running, but I know I should have walked away with it but for the eventual winner scoring 5 goals in a game where the opponent played with 8 men only. There is always next season...

I am pleased with the varieties of my goals - 2 freekicks, 1 acrobatic volley, 3 headers (!), 2 penalties and 3 other which I have forgotten how I scored. That acrobatic volley (half overhead kick) must rank as one of best goals I have ever scored! :-)

See the League Table here
See the Winning Eleven results here
See my goal history here

As usual, you are welcome to leave your comments here.

Some overdue updates

I have been extremely hard working (in working) and extremely lazy (in writing this blog) for the past 2 weeks, and here are some quick overdue updates from me:

Work

As I said, I have been getting increasingly busier over the past month and today was particularly hectic for me. There was an unless order at 4pm today and we managed to get the doc filed by 3:58pm! If our court clerk get stuck in a lift or traffic jam, then that would be it!

Court

I conducted my 2nd trial at Lands Tribunal last Thursday. It was another good experience for me as I have always liked being an advocate. Cross examining witnesses is the fun part - provided it all goes according to your plan. The judge was the same one I faced 1 year ago who ruled in favour of me, and for sure he is not an intimidating figure. He was forever looking like he was in a rush and one of his habits is quoting irrelevant examples. This time, his best lines were - "You know, I don't know the whole truth. I can't know the whole truth, can I? But it is like that in civil cases....balance of probabilities...you know....55 to 45...or 48 to 52 ....or 47 to 53.....you know..."

I am confident that the case will rule in our favour, stay tuned for the outcome.

Client

Speaking of my client in the above case, she is an old woman and suffered mental illness some years ago. I had a concern as to whether she has the capacity to enter into any contract with us but that is irrelevant now. She told me some weird stories when I met her, like how she over-practised a religion such that she had ascended to another dimension, how she used to hear noises and see images of another dimension...etc. She seems very normal and rational to me now. I hope her well.

A Landmark Diver

Check this hilarious video clip from Fumier

There is something about Erection

I attended a conference with 5 middle aged men yesterday. Guess what the meeting was about - click "Comments" at the bottom of this post to see the answer. Here are some verbatim quotes of the meeting:

"I am not worried about cross examination. I know about erection everything
I need to know. I have been in erection for the past 20 years."

"Having erected for so long, I will never change my views. No one
can."

"Even if [someone] has perfect dimension, it still needs perfect
erection."

"The Erector should drive the sequence. He should tell the Fabricator what he
wants."

An Interesting Supreme Court Case in US

Got this from Boing Boing, a Supreme Court decision that technology companies shouldn't have to imagine all the infringing ways that their customers might use their products and design to prevent them -- otherwise the iPod, Outlook and the Xerox machine would all be illegal.

Read the judgment here.

Messed up...

Came across this "interesting" piece of news on http://expatatlarge.com/pm/weblog.php and Japundit:

A chinese man, jailed and badly beaten during and after an investigation
into his wife's murder, has been freed after she turned up alive and with
another husband, revealing a brutal arbitrariness to China's legal
system.

She Xianglin's wife, Zhang Zaiyu, disappeared after a domestic dispute in 1994 and when a woman's body was found in a local reservoir, Mr She was detained on suspicion of killing his wife, the China Daily said.

The body was so decomposed it could not be identified, but a local court
found Mr She, a former part-time police officer from central Hubei province,
guilty of murder and sentenced him to death.

A provincial court later commuted the sentence to 15 years in prison. Mr She,
39, was coerced into confessing to her murder and beaten badly in prison, the
newspaper said.

International human rights groups say police torture is widespread in China
and that suspects are held for long periods without trial. But it is rare for a
victim, or the domestic media, to go public about police brutality.

Mr She told the Beijing News that when he was first apprehended, police took him to a remote house and interrogated him for 11 days. He was given just two bowls of
rice a day, nearly no water, prevented from sleeping and threatened with
death.

Reuters

Football Pundits

The most annoying thing when watching football programmes on Cable TV is that you have to endure the endless bullshit of the so-called TV pundits and football experts. Apart from a very few, the rest talks utter bullshit every match.

That's why I have chosen to turn to Channel 64 (the HKJC football betting channel) for some laughs during the match instead. But still stupid commentaries ring loud and clear from time to time. Like tonite, there are some English Championship matches on. Those pundits said (repeatedly) that there were doubts as to whether some teams, like Ipswich, wanted to get promotion. They reasoned that they would lose every game in the Premiership and would be better off staying in Nationwide Championship.

This is utter bullshit of the highest order! It is a well known fact that the gulf between Premiership sides and Nationwide sides lies in money. Teams earn several millions more TV rights, sponsorship etc in the Premiership than they could in the Nationwide. So why should a team prefer to stay in Nationwide by earning a tiny portion of the income they could have received in the Premiership??

I hope ESPN get their broadcasting right of English soccer back.

哈爾移動城堡 Howl's Moving Castle

Probably one of the worst cartoon / animation movie I have ever watched. Bad storyline, less-than-impressive graphics and apart from the first 10 minutes, the whole movie is a sleeping pill.

Construction Worker

Construction Worker
Originally uploaded by 4016697.

Taken at Lok Ma Chau Cross Border Rail Station.

Some reckons I look better in this outfit than in my usual business suits.

I dreamt of...

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson yesterday.

We were in a ferry and Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were seated at the back. Sherlock Holmes in his usual outfits - cap, pipe etc. - looked old. I was there after returning from a mystery where someone was killed and police were beginning investigation....etc.

Then it goes...

Me: "Mr. Holmes, I am James"
SH: "I have known you for the past 2 years"
Me: "I must have bothered you a lot, sorry. But Mr. Holmes, there is something I must talk to you"

Then Holmes stood up and went to the front of the ferry and I followed him. The dream ended by Holmes ordering a sausage + egg instant noodles!

Shanghai Delight

4 days after returning from Brisbane, I boarded the plane again. This time the destination is Shanghai.

The (extremely) early flight at 8:20am means that I had to arrive at the airport as early as 6:20am. I woke up at 5:20 to make sure I wouldn't miss the first Airport Express departing from the Hong Kong station. Met Ellen at the airport and she was 20 minutes late. She was apparently still in her dreamland when she suggested to meet for breakfast without even checking us in! After my usual routine of having the breakfast at Café de Coral at the airport and visiting WH Smith, we boarded the plane with the *Final Call* sign flashing. So no duty free shopping this time.

The Hotel - JC Mandarin

Made a fool out of myself when I asked the cab driver to take us to "Gaan Chuang Wen Hua" (錦滄文華) Hotel. The driver clearly didn't understand me. It was then debated between us (Me and Ellen, not the driver) as to whether "錦 " should be pronounced as "Gaan" or "Jin". It turned out that I was wrong - it should pronounce as "Jin". Ellen got her revenge over me after her similar experience in Taiwan.

The hotel is situated at the central business district of Shanghai with Plaza 66 opposite to it. The Shanghai office of my firm (as well as several big names) are all packed in Plaza 66, a state of the art building which have a large shopping mall selling expensive stuff downstairs. McDonalds and Haagen Daaz are nearby.

The hotel room is neatly decorated with a king sized bed and the longest pillow I have ever laid my head on. Located on the 19th floor, it has a nice view from the room at night when the lights on the streets are on.

Eat Eat Eat

Without the desire to go sightseeing or visiting museums, 80% of our trip was planned around eating. There are so many good restaurants around but our capacity of our stomachs are limited, but we did try our best to put in as much food as our stomachs allowed. Adopting the economic theory I learnt from my F6 class, I only stopped eating until the marginal utility of my having another bite has dropped to zero.

Below are a list of restaurants we visited during our 4 days trip:

1. 港式茶餐廳
2. 永和大王
3. 金錨
4. 南翔饅頭店
5. 真鍋咖啡店
6. 新吉士
7. 永和大王
8. McDonalds
9. 黃浦會
10. [a coffee shop]
11. [日式燒烤]
12. 楊家廚房
13. 永和大王 (again!)
14. Hyatt Hotel Coffee Shop
15. 小金陵
    
16. Coffee Shop at Airport
    

You may note that "永和大王 " appeared several times on the list. That was by far my most favourite place to eat in Shanghai. I have experienced the best beef noodles in my life there - the soup was made of chillies and carrot, so it tastes spicy and sweet at the same time. Then the hot soya milk with the "油炸鬼" is the best food partnership. You can spend as little as RMB18 to enjoy the above combo.

"新吉士" and "楊家廚房" serve good Shanghainese dishes. According to a travel guidebook, the latter restaurant is a must-visit place for my favourite idol - Headmaster Tam. "黃浦會" is another nicely decorated restaurant at the "外灘" facing the Oriental Pearl Tower at Pudong.

The Charm

Shanghai is a beautiful city, especially when the lights are on at night. The yellowish lights on the European style buildings at the "外灘" must rank as one of the beautiful sights in China and the Oriental Pearl Tower and Jin Mao Building on the other side of the harbour added to the modern uniqueness of the city.

I was surprised by the number of skyscrapers in Shanghai. Although I am not an expert in building design (and never will be), I do find the numerous 60-storey upwards buildings scattered around the city have their own uniqueness. I think it is only a matter of time before it breaks into the top 5 most beautiful skylines in the world (which is now occupied by Hong Kong, New York, Seoul, Chicago and Singapore).


Shopping?

Despite my best efforts to get a pair of new sportshoes, I failed. The prices of Adidas, Nike etc are much more expensive in Shanghai than in Hong Kong. Apart from the costs of travelling and food is slightly cheaper than Hong Kong, the money you spend on other items (especially luxurious merchandise) is as much in Shanghai as you spend in Hong Kong. So neither place is a shopping paradise. Anymore.

It turned out that the only stuff I bought is a pack of "Duck Liver" for my secretary and a mini Er-hu "二胡" for my mother.

Lastly…

We are already planning which hotel we are going to stay in for our next visit. Grand Hyatt at the Jin Mao Building is a clear favourite here.

Funny Signs in China

The Retreat

I am back from the Retreat in Twin Waters Resort in Sunshine Coast, Brisbane. It is an eye-opener for me and for the 3 days there, I had to mingle with Aussies that I have never met before. My memory is getting poorer and poorer and it is no surprise that I kept forgetting the names of the people there - resulting in introducing myself to the same people again....and again!

It is nice to meet them though as all of them (partners or associates) have all been very friendly to me. Ego was non-existent at the camp.

Day 1

After an almost 9 hours flight to Brisbane, the HK team boarded a 7 seater for another 1 hour drive to the resort. It was good that I managed 4-5 hours sleep on the plane and I watched "Finding Neverland" for the rest of the 2 hours. After arriving at the resort, I had a quick shower before heading to have a quick bite. We then had our first activity - an discussion group on the topic "We can obtain the best knowhow by...". I feel it a bit surprised that everyone in the group was very serious about the session and there were a lot of constructive discussions and some heated arguments as well.

After the session I had a tennis game with Brian (an Aussie who lived in HK for the past 5 years and a nice guy) and although I was playing not as bad as I thought, I was soundly murdered by him. 1-6, 0-6. "Home Advantage" was my excuse of losing.

Then dinner at the Naked Italian followed by a games and quiz nights. I had absolutely no idea as to all the quizzes (I don't even understand some of the questions as those were tailor made for the Aussies).

Day 2

Day 2 began with the presentation of the discussion group we had on the 1st Day. Then there was the showcase presentation. It was basically a presentation by each office as to the people and the projects they were working on. We did a powerpoint presentation on the theme "Mission Impossible - Mission Hong Kong / Shanghai" with some very nice background music in the tune of Mission Impossible. The slides show our funny photos and some good one-liners. My line was "Laws were made to be broken". The Hong Kong showcase was well received which is great as there were a lot of efforts behind the whole thing.

Then it came the game "Survivor". I was surprised by the fitness of the Aussies - many female colleagues overrun me in the first game which involves a lot of running. Our team finished the competitions in the first place but was gunned down in the Tribal Council. One of the tasks in the Survivor game was to nominate something that "I have done something which no one here have ever done". It was interesting to note that the Sydney partner once drove train for a living, an associate once sang live on US TV at the Goldengate Bridge in San Francisco and another chap caught a crocodile while fishing...

The Talent Quest was the next activity on the night. We had some divided opinions as to whether we should perform our can-can showgirls dance. I was going for it and I have prepared to make a fool out of myself long beforehand. We had a voting 10 minutes before we were due to appear on stage - it was a "go" by a 5-2 majority. Our performance lasted for 30 seconds before it all went wrong. The stage was too small for us to perform our "moves". We were standing on the stage forgetting what moves were next before someone said "Let's move for the exit!" and we are done!

Day 3

After breakfast, we checked out and headed for the airport. Another 8.5 hours flight saw me watched "Sideways", "Closer" and the last half hour of "Murder by number". That concludes the Retreat.

Got it!

Got the visa 2 hours before the close of business. Phew!

Am I staying or am I going?

Everything are prepared. The dresses, the can-can moves, the luggages, even the wigs and eye-lashes.
Except one thing….my visit visa! I am still waiting for my visit visa 5 hours before the Australian Consulate is bound to close for business today.
So I might not be going afterall!

McMug

Cute little icon

Added this cute little icon to this blog. Feel free to use it for linking!

Survival Kit, Travelling, Football, Spurs...etc

It seems that I have not been updating this blog for quite a while, so I am putting together some random stuff here:-

- Many cool little games at Mousebreaker.com, which is really an essential survival kit for office workers. I can't live without it. Blast billiards and Striker of the Month are my 2 favourites. Anyone who can reach the 2nd save point of Blast Billiards please leave me a note how you do it!

- My travel schedule : 18-20 March on business retreat in Australia and 25-28 March on a leisure trip to Shanghai

- Rather unexpectedly, I have fallen into 2nd place in the Top Scorer Table for LSCOBA soccer league, with 9 goals in 9 games. The trophy was once in my pocket but then my rival scored 5 in one match to overtake me. I still have 2 matches to outscore him though.

- Speaking of football, I scored twice in a grassroot standard friendly match on Monday. This wasn't worth reporting, but then my first goal was scored from just outside my penalty area (a full 40 to 50 yards out at least).

- Last Monday, I went to the top floor of Princes Building to do some fitting measurement for the Talent Quest. And my ever-expanding waistline is now standing [proudly] at the staggering height of 33"!

- Watched one of the best football matches in recent years - Chelsea 4 Barcelona 2. Thrilling entertainment! Joe Cole arguably played the best match of his career so far.

- My beloved Spurs are doing not bad recently despite a slip-up against Southampton last weekend. Spurs will play away to Newcastle for a FA Cup semi-final spot. Newcastle is really banging on form but having already won 1-0 at St James Park earlier this season, I am confident that Spurs will at least earn a replay.

I am Sorry!

I am so wrong. I am really sorry. Words and tears can't describe how remorseful I am. It is my worst sin in my life, and I swear that I will never repeat the mistake for the rest of my life. I will be a good boy from today. Please forgive me!

Quality clip

Quality clip!

Weather

What's going on with the global weather? Snowing in Las Vegas, a 20
degree celcius difference in a day in Japan, not to mention the
Tsunami. To a lesser extent, Hong Kong is suffering from the coldest
and most humid March (ever)!

It seems that the cool wave shows no sign of leaving as it is
forecasted that the temparature on Saturday will again drop to 9
degrees. So I am having flu again which is like a monthly event for
me. Of course sitting frozen in a hot pot restaurant, worshipping
ancestors under heavy rain and playing football (and getting stuffed
2-6) aren't gonna help!

Spring Dinner

Spring dinner for my new firm took place this Wednesday which was also the 15th day of Chinese New Year. The theme of the dinner was "Colourful". Although I did my best to wear the sharpest jacket I can find in my closet, I was not good enough to receive a single vote for the Best Dresser Award....

Allegedly a True Story

You probably have seen it before, but I'd just put it here for your amusement.

A Charlotte, NC, lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive
cigars, then insured them against fire among other things. Within a month
having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars
and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy,
the lawyer filed claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the
lawyer stated the cigars were lost "in a series of small fires." The
insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason: that the man
had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The lawyer sued and won!
In delivering the ruling the judge agreed with the insurance company that
the claim was frivolous. The Judge stated nevertheless,that the lawyer
held a policy from the company in which it had warranted
that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would
insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be
unacceptable fire," and was obligated to pay the claim. Rather than
endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted
the ruling and paid $15,000.00 to the lawyer for his loss of the rare
cigars lost in the "fires."

NOW FOR THE BEST PART...
After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested
on 24 counts of ARSON!!!! With his own insurance claim and testimony from
the previous case being used against him. The lawyer was convicted of
intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24
months in jail and a $24,000.00 fine.

Can someone please buy me.....

an Air-Con? Mine is not working and is more like a heater.

Air-Con, Coke, Internet

Speaking of Air-Con, it must be one of the inventions of all time.
Certainly I cannot live without it especially in Hong Kong this hot
and humid place.

The other 2 things that I cannot live without are Coke and Internet. I
like drinking coke while the others like drinking beers or smoking
cigarettes - so I assume I am still the healthiest of the 3. I like
coke so much that I now have its necessary accessory - a mini-fridge
in my room now.

As for internet, I'd feel really strange if I do not have access to it
everyday. Blogging, keeping track of Spurs news, playing online games
and football betting - all part of my daily life - are all done on the
internet. So take away the internet, you take away half of my life.

The Aviator

I am not saying it is a bad movie. But I just don't know why the heck
is this movie so special for it to earn so much rave reviews and is
currently the hot favourite to land the Oscar Best Film Award.

I was stuck at the cinema for 3 hours waiting for its climax and
before knowing it, it ends. During the 3 hours, I didn't cry, laugh or
giggle at any part of the movie. If I was attached to a pulse machine,
the meter probably remained constant for the whole duration. If I have
to give one emotion / feeling that I have towards the movie, it
probably would be "Miserable".

Give me some milk, give me some milk, give me some milk....

The Judge

I came across this news from a website this afternoon....

Judge Allegedly Had Sex Device Under Robes

POSTED: 2:54 pm CST February 9, 2005
UPDATED: 3:09 pm CST February 9, 2005

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma judge faces indecent exposure charges for
allegedly masturbating in court.

Investigators in Oklahoma City charge that Judge Donald Thompson used
a device called a "penis pump" under his robe during trials.

Thompson denies the allegations. He says the pump was a gag gift from
a hunting buddy on his 50th birthday.

Thompson retired from the bench in August in the face of the
embarrassing allegations, but now prosecutors have decided to press
criminal charges.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson expects there will be a
string of appeals from defendants who were tried before Thompson,
including those who faced murder charges. Investigators said they've
recovered DNA samples from carpet, the judge's chair and his robes.

Grrr....

Random Mumblings

Today is my secretary's (K's) birthday. I have placed my present on her desk before she arrived at office. She was pleasantly surprised because she had not expected me to know her birthday (which I know from the telephone list which contains one b-day - without the year of birth of course) and had not expected to receive a present from me as she was only my secretary for merely 10 days or so. She said that I am "細心" in knowing her b-day and "有心意" in choosing the gift. These are of course nice words to hear, but what she didn't know was I had bought this present for my ex-secretary at my old firm before.....

Speaking of my new firm, I am really enjoying every minute of it (bar the 8:30am meeting every fortnight!). I think I have settled in quite well. Some Aussies even said that my English contains Australian accent! But yesterday, there was a Aussie newcomer who sits in my adjacent room. He entered into my room and asked me for a "case". Being confused, I thought he was asking what case I am working on and I mumbled something. 30 seconds later, he again asked me for a "case". I again asked "what case?". He said "the 'case' to the male toilet". Shit, he was asking me to lend him the "keys" all along!!! How embarassing!!!!

After 2 weeks observation, I can confirm my boss is an all round nice bloke. He is polite, humble, approachable and well, just very nice. He always apologises to me for having to make me stay at office till 6:45pm (!!!!!), always says my points are intelligent and good (it is encouraging even if fake) and always puts blame on himself for revising my draft letter or pleadings (which clearly isn't his faults!!!). Like today, he came in and told me that he would leave office early to attend a duty lawyer session. He said "I wanted to chat with people and learn something", but the truth is - he is sacrificing his time to give free legal advice to people. Very likeable guy.

He is so likeable that I have decided to room with him when our Construction team go to Sunshine Island, Brisbane in mid March for the annual retreat. Looking at the photos of the resort (Twin Water Resort - a 4.5 star resort), it looks like it is an exciting trip to look forward to.

As to my old firm, another friend in my LLB/PCLL year will be leaving in early March. It seems that it is a relief for people to leave my old firm. From my brief tele con with her, she gave me the impression that "the sooner I get out from this hell the better". In my circle of friends, only 3 are remaining there. I wish all good luck!

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day to everyone!

The relationship between Ellen and I has risen to a level that no special gift or arrangement is necessary in celebration of the day....so apart from an bunch of roses at an inflated price, we had a simple dinner + dessert for the day.



To make this blog more educational, below are some extracts as to the history of Valentines' Day

Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.

The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honour of a heathen god. On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for the celebration of this new feaSt. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way.

I thought I was God of Gambling.....

and I lost big time in the annual playing cards game with my relatives! Blackjack, Carribean Poker, Mahjong and 鬥牛 - you name it and I blew it! But it was good fun all the way, and it is nice that Carribean Poker has invaded into our annual card game this year after establishing its presence in Macau casinos.

My lai see income has also dropped significantly. It is time for me to ask the married ones out for meal to pursue for the lai sees actively!

Kung Hei Fat Choy

Kung Hei Fat Choy my friends!

When I was small, 年初一 used to be a day of gambling with my cousins and relatives....mahjong, blackjack etc. $2 for a game. This year the day of gambling will probably take place on 年初三, and in anticipation of the day, I have bought six packs of playing cards from 7-11 tonite - because we will be simulating the game - Macau casinos style!

Instead, today I went to a few places to get the red packets and ate some incredible turnip cakes. Gosh, I like turnip cakes!

Try beat this game

The rule is simple.

There are 3 rows of marbles. You can take as many as you like in any row for your turn. Likewise the computer. Your objective is to let the computer takes the last marble.

I tried, I failed.....

http://www.transience.com.au/pearl.html

Macau Trip

The weekend before the commencement of my new role, we had a nice trip to Macau.

I had a magic recovery from my illness the morning we depart, and we boarded the Turbo Jet in the afternoon. We went to have some 緬甸 food at "三盞燈" and then went on to the kart racing track. While we are waiting for our turn, we played the 估錢 game where each of us will grab some coins in our hands and we will take turn to guess the total held in our hands. The winner takes all. Edmund, Cyrus, Christie and Simon were the big winners, and I was the big loser!

Our time has come and Simon, Cyrus, Edmund, Jo, Eva and I played the first round, but no matter how fast I drove, I couldn't seem to catch up with Cyrus and Simon. Then the 2nd round came and only Simon, Cyrus, Jo and I remained. The different acceleration and braking mechanism of 2 different karts made my life difficult (that's my excuse anyway!) and I crashed 3 times in my first 3 laps!

After a great sharkfin dinner at 寶石 restaurant, we then proceeded to get some souvenirs and Simon/Eva, Edmund went crazy to buy the 豬肉乾 etc.

Then it was time to make some money - the Sands! I have won $600 off their blackjack table and Cyrus / Christie went one better - they won $1300 on a 老虎機!!!! We took the 23:30 jet back Hong Kong and thanks to Jo's copy of 蒲王, we had something interesting to read on the turbojet!

My new role

I started my new role this Monday. I was quite tense for the last few days of my month long leave. Perhaps that made me sick again.

Anyway, things have been great so far. I got a nice room which the set up is pretty much the same as my old room but only this time it is a square room instead of a rectangular one. The window oversees the Bank of China Tower and erm....the ICAC and the carpark. But still, it is nice to have a room filled with posh hardwares - an 19" LCD monitor, a handsome chair etc.

The people there are predominantly Aussies. But they have been very nice and friendly to me, and that helps me settling in very well. I have been working closely with a senior associates who is a Christian who is a genuinely nice person - he kept telling me to leave office early after I got the work done. He was also nice enough to spend a lot of time explaining how the office operates etc to me. A top bloke!

The most pleasant surprise is that there is a fellow newcomer - an LLB colleague of mine and it is good to have someone you know to start with. Of course, I now get unlimited supply of Coke, Lemon Tea etc. which is NICE!

Long may it lasts!!!

Sick again???!!!

I should have known it...I have been making nightmares all night long. I saw myself in a classroom attending my first day of school (reflecting my imminent first day at work), and then there was the black strong guy climbing the scaffolds to reach the window beside my desk. That guy looks like the star actor in the Green Miles (which I have watched it in Taiwan last week).


Anyway, the guy approached me violently and accused me of possessing dangerous drugs! I was left speechless - I don't do cigarettes or alcohol, and you are accusing me of drugs???!!! Come on!!! The guy then asked me to open my mini-fridge to show him the contents....as to why I have brought my mini-fridge to school, I had no idea. I opened the fridge and was surprised to find some ice cream cones inside. I protested my innocence but the guy insisted that I would be going to prison as I have failed my drug test twice....and the mare goes on and on......

I visited the loo more times today than I did this week (well, literally) which puts my trip to Macau in doubt. Hope I can have a super recovery tonite and go on board tmr morning!

Blackjack Strategic Table

This is the ultimate stategic table for blackjack players. It reduces the advantage of the Banker to the minimum! Print it out and take it to Macau!!

Happy Birthday to Jo

Double Delight for Jo - happy birthday and happy job change!

Taiwan Trip - Day 4 (Final Day)

We had little time in our final day so we decided to stay close to the hotel. Ellen bought some souvenirs so as to use up all the Taiwanese money. Had lunch at a very nice restaurant called 魔法咖哩 and then boarded the air-bus.

That concluded our Taiwan trip!

Taiwan Trip - Day 3

We began the day with a trip to 西門丁. Had lunch at a restaurant called 可樂森林. After that, we walked around the teen-populated area for a while. Spent some time in an amusement centre playing the basketball throwing game and the picking-a-doll-from-the-machine-game. I am always good at these mini games and these are my collections!

I bought Jay Chow's Concert CD and Ellen bought some Taiwanese food as souvenirs. We had our dinner at 士林. There is a large food complex there with lots of Taiwanese food. This is the highlight of the trip for Ellen as she always wanted to fill her stomach with food from 士林.


Then it rained. Quite hard. We shopped around for quite a while at 士林 and decided that it is time to leave 士林 and went on to our next stop - 麻辣火鍋. We had 花枝丸,牛柏葉,枝竹,牛肉 etc. I like spicy food but not as spicy as 麻辣. I like curry or satay more.

Still we had our next stop - Holiday KTV. We wanted to go to 錢櫃KTV which was a grand and luxurious KTV but it was always fully booked so we settled on Holiday KTV. There are many songs (especially Jay Chow's) that cannot be found in Hong Kong, and I had a great time there!

Taiwan Trip - Day 2

Had a breakfast at 水美. Then set off to our 2nd hotel - Caesar Park Hotel which is located at the centre of Taipei City. The 捷運 station was just beneath the hotel, so the location is excellent.

We had lunch at 鼎泰豐 but there is not much difference between the food there and the Hong Kong shop. We then took a bus to 101 World Trade Centre. It is the tallest building in Asia and it definitely looks posh externally and internally. We bought tickets to the observatory tower on the 98/F and the lift is the quickest in Asia - it took us exactly 45 seconds to reach 98/F from the bottom.

The view from 98/F is not overwhelmingly impressive though. The landscape of Taiwan and the lack of tall buildings around made the view ordinary. The amazing thing was that you can see the clouds going below you - it was THAT tall.


There are some shops in the 101 World Trade Centre and there is a large Page One where Ellen bought a romance book by John Grisham (I thought he only writes court dramas!). We then had a coffee before setting off to our next destination - 忠孝路. We had a brief walk at the 饒河街夜市 and then it was dinner time.


We had a very nice Japanese-style BBQ buffet dinner at a very nice restaurant. It costs HK$100 for each head and I left with a very full stomach (which resulted in some bad consequence which I am not going to detail here!)

We then went to 誠品書店 after dinner but left empty handed.

Taiwan Trip - Day 1

Arrived at Taipei at 1:00pm. Checked in at 水美溫泉酒店. Being such a lazy person, I took a 1.5 hour nap in this nice hotel before going out. The first stop is 淡水 - 漁人碼頭. We were surprised to see that there is virtually nothing there apart from this footbridge.

After our extremely short stay at the 漁人碼頭 which can only be describe as "走馬看花", we returned to 淡水老街. It is an area filled with small shops selling various kinds of stuff including one selling condoms (with different favours, shapes...etc.) We had some Taiwanese snacks there including cuttlefish balls etc. We also had a bowl of Beef Noodles but it was not good as I thought.


We returned to the hotel at 9:30pm and had a hotspring bath. The hotspring bath was located indoor and rather clean but it was not as spacious as the one we had in Hokkaido 2 years ago. After finishing the hotspring bath, we went to have an ice cream at McDonalds outside the hotel.